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My father, Ike Cox, had a lifetime of horse dealing. He had three
horsemeat shops during WW2, travelling to all the horse fairs in
Britain, hand-slapping horse dealing. I am Ikea s son Doug, and in
1963 my father and me travelled to Appleby Fair in Westmorland by
horse-drawn Romany gypsy vardi with a four-wheel wagon and flat
cart, with many gallowers tied behind, all for sale. We had a
hundred miles to travel, meeting up with many gypsies and
travellers on our way. I write our story in the year 2014, telling
of how everything was in those distant, bygone years; of our gypsy
encampments and our gallowers climbing the steep hills of
picturesque Yorkshire Dales. Telling of how it all was on Dealersa
Corner and Fair Hill, with many hand-slapping horse deals. Washing
the gallowers in the River Eden next to the White CafA (c) and in
the evening horse dealing continuing on in the pubs in Appleby
village. Singing, clog dancing on the street, bare-knuckle
fighting, a trotting race at dawn on the main road on and down at
Appleby trotting track. We had a trotter called Half Lug and a big
gamble took place. Did she win? Oh for the love of Appleby Fair! We
will be back next year on the second Tuesday and Wednesday of June.
My story is to the memory of my father, Ike Cox. A 400 page
Hardback with my full colour glossy sketches.
Old Jock, the Shepherd, that's what everybody called him. He was
born a long time ago in the year of 1880. He was born in a croft
farm in the bonny Highlands of Scotland. His father was a shepherd
all through the eighteen-hundreds. In those distant bygone years
everything was done by horse-drawn and all these old-fashioned ways
of how things were done was all passed on to Old Jock from his
father. I am Douglas Cox, better known as Countryboy. During the
decade of the 1970s I got to know Old Jock very well, very well
indeed. During that whole decade he would tell me his whole
lifetime of stories. How people would travel by stagecoaches, but
more to the point, how he worked his croft farm with horse-drawn
machinery and how he shepherded his vast flock of several thousand
sheep. I might add, well into his nineties. As I write this story
in the year of 2012 Old Jock is now dead, but he dearly wanted me
to write about his shepherding lifetime. He told me his story in
Scottish broken tongue; I will tell you his story in English broken
tongue. And what a terrific knowledgeable story Old Jock did tell!
One day as I was browsing through our local newspaper what I saw
made my eyes sparkle. The headline said 'Secret Coverdale' and that
made my memories drift far away. I have spent more than 25 years up
there, making many friends and acquaintances. The story in my
newspaper was saying how Secret Coverdale looks and how
holiday-making tourists miss it as they tour around the Yorkshire
Dales. They surely do. All the beautiful picturesque scenery they
are missing. I thought to myself, I will write a brief story about
Coverdale and send it to the newspaper to let their readers have a
read of my times I spent up there. So, pen to paper, I wrote and
wrote and kept on writing, and by the time I had finished I had
more than 200 pages. Far too much to put in a newspaper, so I sent
it to my publishers instead and they published it into a book. I
tell of many things about Secret Coverdale, meeting many old
characters of the dale and all the dales which surround Coverdale,
all 700 square miles of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Together
with 200 splendid photographs I took, making my book in excess of
400 pages, all in glossy hardback. You could say I know Secret
Coverdale like the back of my hand.
This is what I call my own true McCoy of book. By now I am sixty
years young; I have spent my life time on mother nature's fields
and her countryside. As I wrote my lifetime of stories I had to
delve my mind deep back into my past having to recall what happened
and how it happened and then writing it down into my story. Believe
me, what true stories I do tell, I speak of how things were way
back in time in yester-year, I also speak of an old retired head
gamekeeper whose lifetime dates way back in time to the late
eighteen hundreds and it is his own words that tell his story,
telling of how his pheasants were reared the old-fashioned way, out
in the rearing fields, speaking of his yearly cycle of all the four
seasons, telling his story on the daring poaching he had on his
estate, telling the true art of poaching and how it was done. If
the poaching isn't in this book, then it probably doesn't exist at
all! What a terrific story the old head keeper tells, a real
eye-opener for the up-and-coming young keepers of today. Hardback,
500 pages together with my great, detailed sketches!
My name is Douglas Cox, better known as Country Boy. This is my
true-to-life story of what happened to me when I was in my early
twenties which was way back in time in the decade of the 1970s. I
tell of how I would travel with my friend Barry, the long-distance
lorry driver, up into the Bonny Highlands of Scotland and while
Barry would stay up there haulaging all week long, I would be
dropped off. I would sleep rough in my self-made bivouac in the
vast fir tree plantations on a Laird's vast estate which stretched
thirty miles long and twenty miles wide. The Laird's estate was
absolutely out of control with rabbits and I would poach these
rabbits all week long with my ferrets and then Barry would pick me
up again on his back track home. You readers must now have to ask
yourselves, 'DID I GET CAUGHT?' or 'DIDN'T I GET CAUGHT?' poaching
the Laird's rabbits. You will have to read my exciting and
knowledgeable true-to-the-fact story to find out. Now you readers
sit back comfortably and read my true McCoy of a book which is the
story of all lifetime's of stories on big time rabbit catching,
plus many of my graphic, in great detail illustrations, this book
is a hardbook version 359 pages.
Civil War Flags of Tennessee provides information on all known
Confederate and Union flags of the state and showcases the Civil
War flag collection of the Tennessee State Museum. This volume is
organized into three parts. Part 1 includes interpretive essays by
scholars such as Greg Biggs, Robert B. Bradley, Howard Michael
Madaus, and Fonda Ghiardi Thomsen that address how flags were used
in the Civil War, their general history, their makers, and
preservation issues, among other themes. Part 2 is a catalogue of
Tennessee Confederate flags. Part 3 is a catalogue of Tennessee
Union flags. The catalogues present a collection of some 200
identified, extant Civil War flags and another 300 flags that are
known through secondary and archival sources, all of which are
exhaustively documented. Appendices follow the two catalogue
sections and include detailed information on several Confederate
and Union flags associated with the states of Mississippi, North
Carolina, and Indiana that are also contained in the Tennessee
State Museum collection. Complete with nearly 300 color
Illustrations and meticulous notes on textiles and preservation
efforts, this volume is much more than an encyclopedic log of
Tennessee-related Civil War flags. Stephen Cox and his team also
weave the history behind the flags throughout the catalogues,
including the stories of the women who stitched them, the regiments
that bore them, and the soldiers and bearers who served under them
and carried them. Civil War Flags of Tennessee is an eloquent
hybrid between guidebook and chronicle, and the scholar, the Civil
War enthusiast, and the general reader will all enjoy what can be
found in its pages. Unprecedented in its variety and depth, Cox's
work fills an important historiographical void within the greater
context of the American Civil War. This text demonstrates the
importance of Tennessee state heritage and the value of public
history, reminding readers that each generation has the honor and
responsibility of learning from and preserving the history that has
shaped us all-and in doing so, honoring the lives of the soldiers
and civilians who sacrificed and persevered.
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